Magellan 2013: Santa Fe, NM

Currently Listening To: Hear You Me-Jimmy Eat World (my favorite song, I might add)
Miles Traveled: will hit 2000 miles traveled by the time I make it back to the campsite

Current Location: Santa Fe Public Library, Santa Fe - because I can't help it...

I swear I have library senses.  I can find a library anywhere.  Or maybe it's the free wifi...I won't question it.  But here I am.  In the library.  Reading books. 

Earlier today I went to a bunch of art galleries and museums.  I finally checked out the Georgia O'Keeffe museum after seeing signs for it for...the entire time I've been here.  It was actually pretty cool, for not being completely familiar with her work.  Some of Alfred Stieglitz's pieces OF Georgia O'Keeffe were there, and I recognized a few. My favorite painting was Pelvis IV, which shows a blue sky and moon through the hole of a pelvis bone.  Her style of painting matches the environment of the area, with the soft hills and the architecture of the buildings.  Even her individual brushstrokes from painting to painting were soft and rounded, and not abrupt and jerky like some artists.  It was harmonious and continuous.  Okay, done being an art student.  Although I don't usually gravitate towards that style of painting, I can appreciate what she did.  Moving on.

I decided to see a movie, because I didn't recognize any of the titles except for Before Midnight.  The movie that I DID go and see wasn't too bad, but I don't even remember the name, so there goes recommending it.  The important part of this story is that the movie theater was filled with me and about fifteen old ladies, all of who were at least 60.  I wish I was joking.  I'm starting to think I'm actually a 60 year old woman trapped in a 21 year old body.  It makes me sad.

Anyway, another day of art and lemonade.  I really like lemonade... Tomorrow I'm heading to Taos to go exploring/hiking.  I'm very proud of the fact that I've had a post for every single day I've traveled so far.  I have been keeping notes during the day, which is the ONLY reason I can remember any of this...

Adios.

OH wait.  I also went to the Art Museum of Santa Fe, and they had a trippy projector exhibit with people floating in coffee cups.  I'm going to try to do this when I get home, because it's not the first time I've seen it done and it's pretty cool.  Senior show ideas?

P.S. I got 118 page views yesterday on this blog, so I'm feeling quite proud.  The day before I posted any of these posts, I had 3.  Yay, traffic.

Magellan 2013: Black Canyon, NM

Currently Listening to: Up In The Air-30 Seconds to Mars

Miles Traveled: 1,951.3

Current Location: Black Canyon, NM

I walked to the Santa Fe Plaza this morning to see all the shops and walk around Santa Fe and check out some more art galleries and museums.  I saw a bunch of watercolor paintings of the Santa Fe terrain and it was beautiful.  I will definitely be experimenting with that when I get back.  I ate lunch at a little restaurant and discovered my new love: prickly pear lemonade.  It’s probably the most amazing thing about this trip so far.  I even talked to my mom about learning to make it…  It was glorious.

After that, I went to Black Canyon to set up my campsite.  It’s only about seven miles from downtown, and so I can drive in whenever I want to, and come out here to hike and sleep.  As I was setting up my tent, it started to downpour, and I ended up setting up a little bivouac site to keep all my stuff dry, as well as the tent.  It’s actually pretty nice and quiet here and there aren’t a lot of others around.  I’m going to read a bit, drink my hot tea that I just made, and then try to sleep.  Tomorrow is a new day.

Also, there’s no cell service here, which means no setting up my little iPad hotspot for my laptop, which means these posts are going to be posted the next morning when I get into AT&T service.

Magellan 2013: Santa Fe

Currently listening to: Your Love Is A Song-Switchfoot
Current location: Santa Fe, NM
Miles Traveled: 1934.2

I'm really liking this car.  Seriously.  Every time I walk up to it in a parking lot, I think "dang, that's a nice car."

Spinach Feta Croissant at the market

Apparently every Saturday in Santa Fe, the farmer's market happens.  I love farmer's markets and the food that they bring.  This one, however, puts both the Middleburg and Washington markets to shame.  So much food.  I bought honey.  I don't know why, but I did.  Probably some leftover sentiment from freshman year when all I wanted to do was become a beekeeper... No one can judge anything that happens freshman year of college because it's freshman year of college, so it's all good.  Anyway. Farmer's Market.  Good food.  Lots of people.  One lady was poking holes in my three foot American bubble when she literally sat down half on my lap at a picnic table.  I was like...lady.  There are five feet on the other side of you, and you want to share my little space.  I'm eating, and therefore not in the mood to make friends.  In case you were worried, I got over it.

Black Canyon Trail

I started walking around the city a little bit after that, and I got more accustomed to where things were located.  I wanted to check out the national forest outside of Santa Fe, so I drove there and spent most of the day hiking in the woods.  On the one trail, Black Canyon Trail, I stopped, went off-roading, pulled out my multi-purpose Army poncho and took a long nap under a tree.  It was blissful.  I need to start incorporating naps into my schedule this next year.  I've been missing out.

When I was in between hikes, an older lady in a long yellow sundress and white hat came up to me and started talking.  She asked where I was from and what I was doing, etc.  She followed me around for a while, and I didn't know what else to say to her, so I just kept walking.  She just kept following.  She heard a hummingbird and got really excited, so I pointed out where it was to her, and she started talking to it.  She just stood there, having a conversation with the bird.  Finally, she thanked it -for what, I don't know- and we kept walking.

Camp area - National Forest

Later, I met the park director.  Her name is Diane, and she's my friend now.  I am going back to the park tomorrow and going Rambo style in the woods.  Diane said she will show me the good places to camp.  I'm tired of motels.  I even bought a tent, because I neglected to bring one.  The cost of the tent was less than one night's stay in a motel, which makes the stingy Amish blood in me very happy.

Some kind of food.  Salvadoran. Papusas.  Yes.

I came back to the city in the evening and walked around until I found a restaurant.  I have absolutely no idea what I ate there, and I don't care too much.  It was amazing.  I don't even know what the restaurant was called, now that I think about it... oh well.  Details.  I realized it was eight o'clock by the time I finished dinner, and my first thought was that it was too late for me to be out.  This makes me very sad.  I'm a college student, not a responsible adult.  Army has ruined me.  I need to work on this. Also, at the restaurant, I drank Mexican beer, which made me miss Connor.

That was pretty much it.  I did some other stuff in there, but I'm half asleep as I'm writing this, as you many be able to tell, and I can't even remember what I did ten minutes ago.  Goodnight.

Emily Kauffman.

<--I bought a tent.  I made sure it worked.  It does, despite the fact that I have the cover on both backwards and probably inside out.  Remember I said I was tired?  Yeah.  Buenas noches.

Magellan 2013: Amarillo, TX to Santa Fe, NM

Currently listening to: Flightless Bird, American Mouth-Iron & Wine
Current location: Santa Fe, NM
Miles Traveled: 1911.2

Another reason that Optimus>Tank: The streets of Santa Fe had inches of water running over them and not only did I NOT drift into oncoming traffic, it was like there wasn't any water there.

I slept in until eight today.  I finally got the need to hurry up and drive out of my system...at least a little bit more.  Amarillo was small, but there was a lot of buildings squished into the area.  I drove a few miles out of the city to see Cadillac Ranch, which was the only pace I've visited so far that was actually in my plan.  Actually...someone asked me what my Magellan was about and I just said art, because I couldn't remember what my proposal said.  I just wanted to take a road trip.  I should work on that before my reflection paper is due in September... Anyway.  Cadillac Ranch.  It's a public art installation consisting of ten Cadillacs stuck on end in a cow pasture.  There are cans of spray paint just littered around it, encouraging visitors to add to the art.


From here, I went to the Amarillo Museum of Art and ended up in the library reading a book about da Vinci, my favorite artist.  They had an lithography exhibit, which I enjoyed mostly because I have no idea how to do it.  I saw three pieces by Georgia O'Keeffe, and learned that she had been an elementary art school teacher in Amarillo at one point.







I ended my time in Amarillo by driving to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park.  It was exactly the vegetation that imagined the southwest to be. I hiked down into the canyon for a few hours, exploring and taking pictures.  When looking back over the pictures that I took, it looked like I was out in the wilderness, snapping shots of the canyon, when in reality, I was less than a mile from a road, a visitor center, and a bunch of cars.  It's so easy to erase human touch from photos and make the shot look a certain way.  As I was hiking, I was subconsciously picking up rocks and pottery, just like I always did when I was little.  I used to go outside all day, and come back with my pockets full of stuff.

From there, I drove to Santa Fe.  It was a nice drive, and the further I went, the more everything switched over to bilingual or just Spanish.  I realized I was reading them both without differentiating between the two.  I got into the city and it was pouring down rain, but I'm glad to be here, and I'm excited to hang out in one place for a few days.

Magellan 2013: Rolla, MO to Amarillo, TX

Currently listening to: You're The Reason-Eyeshine
Current location: Amarillo, TX
Miles Traveled: 1,547.9

Day two=complete!

I left Rolla this morning around eight and started towards Oklahoma City.  I passed Ft. Leonard Wood and there was smoke everywhere.  I thought it was just fog at first, but i could actually see it billowing up, and it was a dark gray color.  I tried to find out from my friends at LW if Missouri was having forest fires, but no luck. 

 When I got close to the border of Kansas and Missouri, I got off the interstate and onto Historic Route 66 in Joplin.  I followed it for a few miles before coming to a life-size Mater tow truck from the movie Cars.  I had read that the movie was based on Route 66, so I was very excited.  I stopped, took a few pictures, and talked to the lady that had given a lot of information to the makers of the movie.  The street had a lot of buildings that had been featured in the movie.

I drove into Kansas on route 160, and I made a discovery.  Kansas is weird.  I stopped along the road in an wooded area on a road that was barely a road in order to use my phone.   Then, three white limos drove down the road filled with elderly people, all who stared and pointed at me.  I kept driving and came to a bridge with a very descriptive sign.  It read, "Bridge floods.  Turn around.  Don't drown."  I should've taken a picture... 

Anyway, I eventually turned south into Oklahoma.  A year ago to the day I was in Oklahoma at boot camp.  I can't say that I miss those days... I don't understand Oklahoma turnpikes.  I payed literally five times on one road.  When I got on, they gave me a ticket.  It told me that in 27 miles, I would need to pay $3.15.  I drove twenty-seven miles, and sure enough, I came to a toll booth.  I paid, and kept driving...on the same road.   In seven miles, I came to another one.  This time, I had to pay $1.35.  I drive three more miles, and had to pay .35 cents. This was all on the same road... I exited, paid another toll, got food, got back on the road... And paid again.  I don't think I like Oklahoma.  I'm going broke.  Haha.

When I saw the sign for Texas, I was pretty happy.  Amarillo is my last stop before Santa Fe.  Everything was extremely flat, with gorges cut into the earth.  It started to rain, and it was beautiful because I could see the rain miles before I drove into it.  It was just like the clouds had touched the ground.  Amarillo is a nice place, and I'm going to take some time tomorrow to explore the area.  

I keep thinking that I'm missing cool things, but my favorite part of the trip so far is just driving.  I think I'll need a separate trip to just stop and see everything.  :D

Magellan 2013: McAlisterville, PA to St. James, MO

Currently listening to: Closer - Better Than Ezra
Current location: St. James, MO
Miles Traveled: 869.6

Top ten reasons my new car > my old car:

10.) Air conditioning
9.) Heat
8.) Power locks/windows
7.) Auxiliary input for my iPhone
6.) Dashboard display with how many miles left for tank of gas/direction of travel
5.) Working CD player
4.) I hit the breaks...and the car slows down...every...time
3.) More space to shove more stuff
2.) I don't have the need to drown out suspicious engine noises with the radio
1.)  The old owner left a month's subscription to Sirius XM Radio


I'm going to start this blog off right by remember to write a post... I left McAlisterville yesterday after a good week of hanging out with my parents.  After about five days, I was getting antsy from doing nothing, and I started getting ready for the road trip.  Right before I left for LDAC, I had sold Tank the Cavalier, so I needed to buy a new car.  Enter into the picture Optimus, my 2007 Dodge Caliber.  I've named him Optimus for obvious reasons.  See list above.  I drove out to Washpa yesterday afternoon to meet up with people to have a campfire.  I crashed on campus, and then left around 8:45 the next morning to start the trip.

In Ohio, my dad called me to tell me he just passed me on I-70 W going the opposite direction.  He drives through Washington all the time, so I knew he was heading home.  I kept driving until I hit St. Louis.  I saw the arch, got stuck in traffic, and grabbed some food.  A while later, I found myself driving towards Rolla, MO, with an empty gas tank and no idea where the next gas station was... First lesson.  Watching the freakin' gas gauge.  Luckily, I made it to the station in St. James and filled up.  I have a 13 gallon tank, and I put 12.994 gallons in.  Never again.

Altogether, I didn't do much other than drive and look at things.  I drove farther than I planned to, and I definitely felt a need to put as much distance between myself and Pennsylvania as I could.  Now that I got a bit of that out of my system, I'll spend more time tomorrow checking things out.  My dad is texting me with places I should visit and things I should see, so I am making sure to look out for them.  I'm enjoying being by myself after a month of being around 50 people literally 24-7, and I can't wait to start driving again tomorrow.

Until then...

LDACistan, Warrior Forge 2K13

LI figured I should write something about this past month for the one person that has the link to this blog (hey mom).  Thanks for being such a diligent follower.  :)

A few hours ago, I returned from my deployment to Atropia, the make-believe nation located in the rainforest that is Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA.  After a month of infiltration operations, 3rd Regiment, A Company, 1st Platoon vanquished the aggressive South Atropian People's Army (SAPA) and brought peace to Atropians everywhere...

LDAC is set up like a deployment, including peace talks, cultural immersion briefs, and training.  During the final two weeks of the camp, we staged attacks and raids against Atropian towns and resupply points.  There were parts of it that were actually pretty awesome, and then there were times were I considered going AWOL or joining the SAPA.  Upon arrival, we went through medical in-processing, took the physical fitness test, and started our road to war briefs.  The first two weeks, we completed a confidence course, Primary Marksman Instruction for our M16s, Land Navigation, Basic Rifle Marksmanship and IED training.

The next two weeks consisted of actual missions against the SAPA.  We camoed up, and moved out.  We did STX lanes as a squad.  We rotated through commanding a group of 11-12 soldiers.  During platoon ops, we commanded a 50 soldier element, all the while being assessed for our leadership skills.  

Upon returning from our "deployment", we finished out LDAC with CBRN and a water confidence course.  For those of you that aren't familiar with CBRN...Be glad.  CBRN stands for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear, and refers to the point in training when all cadets must enter a chamber filled with 2-Chlorobenzalmalononitrile, otherwise known as tear gas.  You enter with a gas mask, take off the gas masks, and try not to die.  Cadre ask you a series of questions that you must answer if you ever want to get out of the chamber.  This builds confidence in equipment, as well as gives you first hand experience with the effects of riot control gases.  

As horrible as this sounds, it wasn't the worst part of the day.  Water confidence course.  The course consisted of three "obstacles."  The first was a boat race with kodiac boats, which involved flipping the boat upside down and then back over while in the water.  This was a lot of fun, and we beat the squad we were racing.  After this came the single-handed worst part of LDAC.  The obstacle consisted of a ladder attached to a horizontal beam with a block to step over, attached to another ladder, attached to horizontal rope.  The entire obstacle was placed in a lake, so that if you fell off, you fell into the water.  You would climb the rope onto the beam, which was twenty feet up.  The beam was around six inches across, and you made your way across to the other ladder.  From here, you climbed another fifteen feet until you reached a rope.  You would grab the rope and crawl out across the lake until you reached the middle.  At this point, you were hanging off a rope, 35 feet above the water.  The final part of the obstacle was to let go of the rope, drop into the water, and make it back to shore.  I think I hung onto that rope for a solid minute.  I cried like a little baby.  I'm not afraid of heights, and I'm not afraid of water, but I decided I was just going to hang there forever.  Finally, I did let go and thought I was going to die.  Obviously, I didn't.  I even lived to do the next obstacle.

The third obstacle was a zipline across the lake.  The start was approximately seventy feet above the water, and you zipped for a full ten seconds before dropping a few feet into the lake.  For some reason, I was completely okay with this, and ended up having a blast.  

The final week was spent in the barracks, getting ready to go home.  Overall, it wasn't too bad.  I made some good friends, and learned a lot.  Washington state is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, and I didn't want to leave.  

That's about it.  I reserved a spot with a Military Police battalion in Pittsburgh as an S6 officer.  It's pretty much the army version of an IT Manager.  As long as I don't get pregnant, fail a drug/PT test, I will commission in 10 months.